Ruthless Heart

Nero’s the only one who can save me now.

Save me—or deliver the death sentence for me and my brother.

Moving to the sink, I try my best to clean myself up in the cracked mirror. Two days of gas station junk food and dirty motels haven’t been kind, but I smooth down my hair and use paper towels to scrub the dirt off my face. I’m still wearing my hostess outfit from the club, short and tight, with my bra showing through the sheer shirt, but maybe that’s for the best.

One chance with Nero, that’s all I’ve got.

And he always did love me in black.

Chase thumps on the bathroom door. “Time to move!”

I take a final breath, and head back outside. This time, he slams the cuffs back on me hard enough to make me yelp, tossing me in the back of the van. I lay there, trying not to cry as we rattle back onto the highway.

You can reason with him,I tell myself. He loved you, once.

But what kind of man is he now?

* * *

I can tellwhen we finally reach the city. The sound is unmistakable. Traffic and sirens and that buzz of life. Despite everything, my heart leaps.

God, I missed this place.

I thought about moving back a hundred times, but they were just desperate daydreams. I couldn’t risk being spotted; one stray look is all it would take.

But in the end, it turns out nowhere was safe.

We come to a stop, and the van door opens again. We’re in some kind of alley, a delivery entrance maybe. I barely have a chance to look around before Chase hauls me to my feet again and roughly wraps some kind of blindfold around my face.

“Seriously?” I ask, as he hustles me straight ahead. I nearly stumble off-balance, but force myself to keep moving. “Is the cloak-and-dagger routine really necessary?”

“Quiet.”

“I mean it,” I continue, following him blindly. “You think I can’t smell the bagels in the air? I bet you a hundred bucks we’re within a block of Eddie’s. Didn’t you guys have a dive bar on 14th Street?”

“I said, shut the hell up!”

The blow lands hard to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and making me yelp in pain. I stumble back, hitting some solid wall, before I’m yanked forwards again. Inside, the street noise muffled, down a hallway of some kind. Then a door opens, and I’m shoved inside, onto a hard metal chair. “Don’t move.”

I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. It’s not just the cuffs biting into my wrists or the blindfold over my eyes. Now that we’re finally here, I’m suddenly paralyzed with fear.

Nobody knows that I’m here. Nobody would even know where to look if they noticed I’m gone.

I’m completely at their mercy.

At his mercy.

The door slams, and then there’s silence. I wait, my heart skittering an anxious rhythm in my chest.

And I wait.

The minutes tick past, or is it hours? I have no idea. I shift, uncomfortable on my chair.

“Hello?” I call. “Anyone there?”

Silence.

I gulp. Maybe they’ve forgotten about me, or maybe they’re all standing around somewhere, laughing at what’s become of me. But I refuse to let them see how scared I really am. I yell louder.